The Bandwagon Fan

It's a common phenomenon. Your team sucks for a few years and suddenly enters a very good year or a few good years. Before you know it, you enter a stadium, arena, or some other sports venue and while before the scene was empty seats or the hardcore, loyal fans cynical of the team's potential success... it's all replaced by "born again" fans, people who claim they were always fans all along, and other people who really look like they've never been to a game before, but it's the in thing to do so they're there. People suddenly start wearing clothing reflective of your team, whether at the games or on the streets. Maybe at work. Yes, this is the sign of the Bandwagon Fan.

I first experienced it a few years ago when I started going to Oakland A's games at the Coliseum. I've gone to a lot of random games, but each year, I made it an effort to go see a Red Sox game in order to represent. During the first few years, there were fans and Boston ex-pats scattered throughout the stadium. When we bumped into each other at the food stand or in the seats, we'd give each other the knowing nod and continue on our business. During the playoffs in 2003, I remember vividly being the only Red Sox fan in my entire section. When we eliminated the A's, it was easily the scariest walk I've ever had to take from walking from the 500 level to the BART station.

The 2004 World Series changed all that. During the next year, I went to the entire Red Sox series in Oakland and I was surprised that over half the fans were Red Sox fans. Honestly. They literally appeared overnight. It became harder to get seats. Suddenly, instead of being the only Sox fan in my section, my friends were usually the only A's fans. Instead of seeing green all around the stadium, there were significant patches of Red, Blue, and the occasional pink. Yes, pink. If anything, that was a smoking gun that we now had bandwagon fans. It's those damn pink hats. Who really wears pink baseball hats? Not to be a snob, but true fans don't wear that.

So I always scoffed at those who jumped on a team's bandwagon. It didn't seem cool.

And now, I find myself being a big Warriors fan. Well, not a big fan, but a big sign of my changing attitude towards the team is how I've talked at lengths at work with people about the games, I get worked up watching the playoff games, and when there are highlights on SportsCenter, I don't flip the channel anymore. Now this is especially hilarious since I've never watched a Warriors game in my life until maybe a week and a half ago. Will I ever call them my home team? No. The lousy Celtics are. But I am considering getting a hat or a t-shirt. Does that make me a hypocrite?

G-Unit Reviews: A Good Year

a good year
Originally uploaded by foxKMar.

Rating: *** out of *****

Tonight, courtesy of G-Unit-Flix, I popped in "A Good Year," a film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe. I had heard some lousy things about the film, but given the overall theme of slowing things down, enjoying life, and most importantly, enjoying wine, I decided to scope it out.

I was pleasantly surprised, although as full disclosure, I also had very low expectations. Russell Crowe stars as Max Skinner, basically your typical stockbroker asshole. His uncle (Albert Finney) passes away, and his estate and vineyard in France are passed on to Max. While in France to sort out the details and sale of the estate, he hits a wave of nostalgia from his childhood, meets a girl, and meets someone who may be his uncle's illegitimate daughter. You can pretty much guess where this is going.

At any rate, the movie is trying to be a romantic comedy and while some things do not work, some things do. I like the fact that things aren't too slap-sticky and I like how the film just feels very leisurely. I anticipated only watching the film in 30-45 minute increments, but I ended up watching the entire film in its entirety. That's saying something, I guess. The cinematography is very beautiful and it made me want to book a flight to France right away. Or meet someone like Archie Panjabi, who plays the local French girl that Max meets.

I recommend the movie as a rental. It's a light and enjoyable film. Just don't expect too much out of it.

The Wish Tree

Grad School Tour 017
Originally uploaded by gng1524.

Here's a snapshot of what I wrote and added to Yoko Ono's "Wish Tree" project in Washington DC last month.

The Commute from Hell

For the last two years, I've been taking the commute to and from Oakland via MUNI and BART for work. Although it was an added about 30-35 minutes to my commute than the one I had from Berkeley to Oakland, it wasn't too bad. Over the months, I've found myself passing the 45-50 minute commute with books I've been putting off reading, music that I haven't listened to in years (despite popular belief, I do listen to stuff other than Hilary Duff, though she IS on my iPod), and other random activities like writing and GRE studying. I've never really had a bad experience... that is until yesterday, courtesy of MUNI.

I should've figured out that the commute was going to be awful when I read this article over at Metroblogging SF. I figured if I avoided the N-Judah, I should be fine. This was how my commute went.
5:01 pm: Left work
5:08 pm: Arrived at BART station
5:11 pm: Took SF BART line
5:25 pm: Arrived at Embarcadero Station. Walked over to MUNI station. Took the L-Taraval.
5:40-5:45 pm: MUNI stopped and stayed in place at Church station. Conductor announced that a train ahead broke down and there was no ETA when it will go back online. I decided to chance it and walked over to the Church/Duboce intersection.
5:55 pm: N-Judah arrived. The train was PACKED. I decided to wait for the next train. The crowd of people waiting for the next train grew.
6:05 pm: A Duboce/Church shuttle arrived at the stop and EMPTIED out everyone. The crowd of people waiting now doubled in size. The shuttle moved forward a little bit before turning around and heading back inbound.
6:15 pm: ANOTHER Duboce/Church shuttle arrived and it emptied out everyone. There were so many people around that we are literally blocking the street now. The shuttle moved ahead and parked.
6:20 pm: Yay! A N-Judah finally arrived. Unfortunately, it was PACKED and got even more packed when the waiting crowd got a bit aggressive with people pushing to get in the train.
However, a backup of trains resulted in a horrible domino effect. The inbound N train was not given the go-ahead to enter the underground tunnel. The parked shuttle, which couldn't go forward because of the inbound N Judah, was blocking the path for the N-Judah outbound to move forward. Coming out of the tunnel was another N-Judah train waiting to reach Duboce/Church to pick me up. I looked at another person waiting for the MUNI in astonishment and called it a Charlie Foxtrot.
6:27 pm: Things started to move and finally, the traffic cleared away. The second N-Judah train arrived and I push my way into the car to get on.
6:37 pm: Reach my normal stop. Walk home.

97 minute commute. Ugh. Rohit suggested that I run as Mayor on a single issue platform. He might be right. Who's in?

The Wonder Years

The Wonder Years is another reason why it was a genius move to upgrade our house's cable again. It's on the ION network each night at 10 pm. Awesome! Last night, we were watching an episode where Kevin confesses to Winnie Cooper in her yearbook right before summer break started. You can't beat that kind of television.

The Most Amazing Thing Since Sliced Bread

EZ Rider Pass
Originally uploaded by gng1524.

No, I'm not talking about Crossroads, which is a fantastic DC (at least, back in the day).

I am talking about BART's EZ Rider card, which is currently in the piloting phase. The EZ Rider Card is essentially a Smartcard that allows commoners like you and me to act like BART employees and swipe through the BART gates. It automatically recharges the account too, so there's no need to add any more fare at the ticket booth.

This card has been a lifesaver. Besides making myself look cool, I literally save myself about an hour each month that was wasted in lines at the BART ticket booth, at Longs Drugs, or at other locations selling BART tickets.

Thank you BART for joining the ranks of other metro systems across the country!

I have travelled afar and...

I have travelled great distances, and I can now safely confirm that Five Guys burgers have topped In & Out as my favorite fast food burger joint. It is amazing. Again, if you're ever in the DC/VA/East Coast area, check to see if there's a Five Guys joint near you. So good.